Once Yamikuro and Urashin made it past the Whispered Forest, their ears rang, and they suddenly regained the ability to hear the ambient noises all around. Silence was what the Whispered Forest was known for.
But the noises weren't all there was to The Hideout, the world was vast, despite taking hours to reach through the forest surrounding the capital, there seemed to be no end to the land, reaching past their horizon.
Before them, the terrain was a chaotic mix of contrasts: Tall mountains with their peaks covered in snow pierced through the clouds, valleys with rivers running through them for kilometers, gleaming under the sun, and farms with crops waiting to be harvested stood amidst the plains reaching beyond their horizon.
Even the smaller towns rivaled cities in size, dotting the landscape as if their size was nothing. Beyond them, metropolises sprawled, reaching unimaginable lengths, with buildings based around the Renaissance times.
Five Great Noble Clans owned those very same lands, splitting The Hideout evenly between the five of them. Each part was under different rules, a different landscape, and different customs.
Each city was almost a country unto itself, a cacophony of markets, guild halls, and lawless districts where bounty hunters, rogue guilds, adventurers, and thieves, trying to make a living, carved out pockets of power
Railways ran through every city, covering the land like a long silver snake. From a distance, the trains looked tiny, almost insignificant, but their presence hinted at civilizations within the chaos.
The capital they had left behind now seemed like a distant memory. The forest encircling it acted almost like a protective barrier, separating its calm from the untamed chaos beyond.
This was no ordinary land. This was a world where danger and wonder existed in equal measure. And for Yamikuro, it was the first real taste of life beyond the capital, a life where every step could lead to fortune, death, or something far stranger than he could imagine.
Despite the jaw-dropping landscape, Yamikuro felt stuck within his own mind. He thought he had gotten better, but the haunting pain of Kazuhiko's and Elara's betrayal returned.
The situation with Algeda, where Yamikuro left a wounded woman behind without second thought, provoked him. Yamikuro would've at least felt bad for her, but he felt nothing.
The idea of protecting everyone seemed ridiculous to him now. All this time, he was saving people, trying his best to bond with others, just for it all to collapse under him.
Had he been stronger, more prepared, and acted upon seeing Elara pull the trigger, perhaps he could've saved Kazuhiko.
Yamikuro had lost count of how many times this thought went through his mind.
Perhaps this world was just cruel; no matter how many people he saved, he'd still get hurt.
Urashin noticed Yamikuro was more out of touch with reality than ever before. Considering he had just explained The Hideout and its landscape, without Yamikuro answering to a single thing.
Urashin wasn't the type of person to cheer someone up, but seeing Yamikuro in the state he was in, he couldn't help but feel bad.
"Yamikuro. If you need to, we can take a break here."
Yamikuro's eyes slowly moved to Urashin on his left.
"It's fine, the earlier we train, the better, right?" His voice was slightly quavering.
"Forget that for now. If all you'll do is think of what you should've done, you won't get anything done."
Yamikuro's steps on the soft grass stopped. He wanted to drop down to the ground, but didn't. He just stood, completely silent as if words couldn't get through his shut mouth.
"The world doesn't wait for anyone to be ready. Pain will find you whether you like it or not." Urashin said, his back turned to Yamikuro, while he stared at the blue sky mixed with white clouds through his sunglasses.
Urashin's words pierced through Yamikuro as if he were speaking from experience. At that moment, something felt so familiar, yet so distant between the two of them.
"But does that mean you should stop moving? Does that mean you stop trying?"
Urashin wasn't prepared to give a motivational speech to someone, so he spoke from the heart, letting out the side of him he didn't show others. For some reason, he wanted to share his thoughts with Yamikuro. Urashin wasn't sure why either.
"...Every step you take, Yamikuro, even the ones that scare you, even the ones you want to run from, are yours. If you give up after a small misstep, why even learn to walk?"
Yamikuro thought back on his days of first fighting back against Hunters that shamelessly hurt Resonants. He learned how to fight, hide, and adapt for the sole purpose of protecting those who couldn't do it for themselves, because there was no one to protect his parents.
"Those steps are proof that you're still alive, still fighting, and still capable of changing something. Kazuhiko may be gone, but a piece of him still exists within you, and everyone else he opened up to."
Had Yamikuro not learned how to fight, the lives of many would've been lost. He couldn't save everyone, but the ones he did save outweighed it. That's how he even met Kazuhiko in the first place, or why Isabella stepped up against Lucian, or why Kaminari stood beside him to face Lucian.
"What I'm saying is, don't let the shadows in your head convince you that nothing matters. The world is big, yeah… but it's also full of things that can't exist anywhere else but out there, waiting for someone brave enough to face them."
Kazuhiko was now gone, but Yamikuro wasn't willing to let his sacrifice go in vain. Taking down Lucian and his gang, who caused these circumstances, was going to be for him.
Urashin looked over his shoulder, trying to see if Yamikuro was still there.
"I hope you caught that, Yamikuro, because I'm not repeating myself."
Yamikuro clenched his fist, which he held close to his chest, with a slight smile and a tear. That was the piece of Kazuhiko he held onto so tightly.
"Thanks, Urashin."
Urashin didn't react, but perhaps that's why he wore those sunglasses, so Yamikuro couldn't see his eyes.
"We have a long road ahead of us; let's not stall too long," Urashin said, turning away, almost like he tried moving on from the conversation.
"Understood, mentor." Yamikuro quickly walked next to him.
"I'd prefer if you stuck to Urashin."
"Oh, right. Sorry, Urashin. Could you also go over what you said about The Hideout again?"
Urashin let out a disappointed sigh, but after a few steps, he tried summing it up again.
And thus, the journey of these two in The Hideout, Urashin and Yamikuro, mentor and student, was just about to begin.